The Chinese language has several names for avocado—“è lí,” which literally translates to “crocodile pear”; “niú yóu guǒ,” the “butter fruit”; and “lào lí,” the “cream pear.”
An Irvine-based marketing organization hopes it might soon add “Jiālìfúníyà”—or “California”—as a prefix to the labels on the fruit sold in China.
The plan could get a boost on Oct. 20, when representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service are scheduled to meet in Chicago to talk about exports of the thick-skinned, green fruit with counterparts at China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
“We’ve seen just amazing increases in consumption in the U.S. of avocados, which is a great thing, and we’ve seen pricing stay consistent, which is also a great thing, but we also know that we might have some opportunities in other countries that would be advantageous for us to pursue,” said California Avocado Commission Vice President of Industry Affairs Ken Melban.
The commission, created in 1978, keeps an office on the edge of Great Park and represents some 3,400 growers in the state who produced 261 million pounds of the fruit last year. The commission’s chief job is to spur demand for California avocados in the U.S. through advertising, promotion and public relations. It receives most of its funding from the Hass Avocado Board in Mission Viejo, a nonprofit organization that’s overseen by the USDA and collects an assessment—2.5 cents for each pound of fresh avocados sold on the market—from domestic Hass producers and about 150 importers around the U.S.
The U.S. avocado market for domestic growers has changed dramatically over the last two decades—demand is growing, but so is the competition.
The USDA in 1994 gave the green light to import avocados from South America. Imports exceeded domestic production for the first time in 2005 and have been on a steady climb ever since. This year’s anticipated production volume of California avocados is at 358 million pounds—close to the average crop over the last 17 years. Imports to the U.S. from Mexico, Peru and Chile will add up to 1.9 billion pounds. The countries also ship the fruit to China.
Higher Costs, Prices
California-grown avocados typically are more expensive to produce and fetch a higher price at retail compared with imports.
“The reality is California growers—in part due to drought, regulations and just the cost of living here—have a much higher input cost than anywhere else, and because of that, California growers need a higher return to stay in business,” Melban said. “But almost always, we are able to see a much better price for California avocados with the retailers than the offshore (growers) … (Domestic) growers are very resilient, and have continued to show over the last couple of years that they can be very productive in growing high-quality California avocados, even facing these challenging drought conditions.”
The commission has been working with the USDA on gaining access to China since 2005, but the effort “remained significantly stalled due to trade politics,” according to Melban. Then in May it hosted three representatives from its regulatory counterpart in China—a lead official for the Shanghai port, an official from the Dalian port and an entomologist—who conducted a technical audit of a handful of groves and packing facilities in the state to assess sanitary and pest risks.
“We began this process 11 years ago and finally began to see some movement,” Melban said, adding that during the upcoming meeting in Chicago he expects China’s representatives to issue a “report from the visit in May, and (we’ll) see what they identify as areas of concern, if any, and then we would work through our government to come up with an agreeable work plan (that) spells out the specific requirements … for how fruit is to be processed to make sure that any of the potential pest risks are mitigated before they are shipped to China.”
The USDA reports that the value of U.S. agricultural and related exports to China rose from $1.7 billion in 2000 to $25.9 billion to 2000 last year.
Nearly 17% of all U.S. agricultural exports are headed to China this year, in part due to its “increasingly urban population, a burgeoning middle class, and higher disposable incomes,” which have increased consumers’ “ability to diversify diets and purchase high-value, protein-rich foods,” according to the USDA.
“We aren’t sure what the market (for avocados) will be in China,” Melban said. “But we’ve heard that there’s high value placed on California produce (there), and we feel it’s our responsibility to pursue that and find out what the market will provide.”
